Thanks for the offer but I have to decline
by dragonsire13
Summary: With those words Harry shocked the wizarding world. He let them know that if they wanted to end Voldemort, they would have to do it themselves. He was no ones puppet, savior or sacrificial lamp.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to Joanne K. Rowling including the characters, the plot, the ideas and so on. To me belong only the new storyline and the original characters as well as the general madness. This story is written for fun, not to earn money (as if). Ok please note that this announcement counts for all chapters and I'm too lazy to write it down at the beginning of every new part of the story, therefore I trust in your ability to remember these words. (you can do that I'm sure)

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Hello :) welcome to another story of mine... this time I'm trying for a smart, clever Harry. He isn't tooooo powerful (no secret inheritance, no extra magic) his power is his wit and cleverness. I'm welcoming people who leave comments and reviews :) and have fun with the story. If you have problems with my grammar and writing style you are gladly invited to be my beta reader ;).

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**"Thanks for the offer but I have to decline"**

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**1) The Setup**

Even the best laid plans and the most careful woven nets aren't fail proof. Albus Percival Wlulfric Brian Dumbledore would learn this the hard way. He had done everything that was in his power to ensure that fate would unfold as he planned it. Only that fate had something against manipulating old men with a god complex. Fate was really pissed as the Headmaster of Hogwarts used the mumblings of Trelawny to his adventage. It watched as the old man let Snape escape with a part of the prophecy, knowing full well that he doomed the young Potter family. In his eyes it was worth it, even if he lost some of his best people... as long as Voldemort would be defeated. It was for the greater good. Fate and Doom were sisters but they didn't like each other well, there was too much jealousy between them. Fate hated the look of victory on doom's face as Voldemort stepped into Gothric's Hollow to stop the prophecy, only to set it in motion in the first place. Not that fate was surprised that doom had no dignity and got involved with the likes of Dumbledore and Voldemort... but she wasn't fate for nothing. Being fate had more advantages than only a sense of finality, she also had friends and allies and the one she needed the most at that moment was Lady Fortune.

So it came that while Dumbledore placed a sleeping, injured Harry Potter at the doorstep of the Dursley household, fortunate things happened that would seal fate in a way appreciated by the goddess. Satisfied with their work the two ladies (Fate and Fortuna) left the place to return to more daunting matters like the council of gods and preparing for the new winter season. Dumbledore on the other hand hadn't such a good feeling, he had been devastated to learn that Tom hadn't really died at Halloween. It seemed that his former pupil had a back up plan in place in case something would go wrong. So while Voldemort's killing curse backfired at him, it only destroyed his body but the soul of the evil wizard was still alive and could escape as a wraith. Dumbledore had sacrificed James and Lily in vain and now he had to put new schemes in place, for the time when Voldemort would return. Lily's sacrifice had helped her son to live so Harry would be the perfect weapon to fight against Tom Riddle once he returned. The headmaster only had to make sure that the little boy would be molded into the easily manipulated, willing child that would sacrifice itself when needed. As the powerful wizard he was he had not much difficulty with raising blood wards powered by Lily's sacrifice, Petunia's blood and Harry's magic around the muggle household. Those wards would protect the boy and keep him secret until he would be needed, they also would drain him enough so the muggles couldn't complain too much about accidental magic. The old wizard also added some compulsion charms to the wards, they would ensure the hatred of the Dursley's against Harry but would be more from bitterness than rage, he needed the boy downtrodden but alive. Dumbledore also added some strong compulsions for Muggles to ignore and overlook the boy most of the time and some that would make the Durselys keep the boy in their house.

Minerva McGonnagall wasn't happy with letting her friend's son with those people but she trusted the Headmaster. So the witch ignored the feeling of doubt and left the scene after a final wave of goodbye to the boy (which slept in a basket on a doorstep in November with only a blanket and a letter explaining who he was), following Dumbledore which had a smug feeling.

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Everything calmed down at Private Drive number 4, the adults left the scene and little Harry was still sleeping. Odds weren't good for the little boy, as he had been injured by the dark curse of Voldemort and also had a small piece of his enemies soul attached to him. If that alone wasn't bad enough there were also the newly raised wards that slowly started to feed of his magic and would reduce his magical core to minimum in the morning. As far as Dumbledore was concerened everything would go perfectly and in the morning he would be able to detect the new wards and keep watch over them until it would be time for his little weapon to return to the wizarding world. Yet he didn't count in one small detail and that was fortunate for little Harry. The wards while draining him and also compulsing others to be vile to him would also protect him from magic. It didn't matter what intend the magic had (good or bad) those wards wouldn't allow the small boy to be put under any binding magic as long as he was with Petunia. With his head held higher than the stars Dumbledore overlooked that this wouldn't only affect, magical detections, beings, post owls and death eaters but also the sleeping and warming spell that he had put on the small child.

Harry had cried himself to sleep, his mummy was gone. The boy had been scared and exhausted and he couldn't forget the laughter and the green light. Fortunately for him (even if he wouldn't know that for years) he felt very cold and even though he was exhausted he woke up. It was dark and he didn't know where he was. He only knew that this wasn't his room or the house he had lived him. Where were his mummy and daddy? He was alone and silently cried again, not daring to make a noise in case that the man with the evil laughter and the green light was still there. Harry could already walk, he had played with uncle paddy and his daddy so often that he had learned it soon, as well as flying at his broom. Harry got up and kept the blanket around him, with the letter that was placed in its folds. The boy pulled the blanket closer around him and headed for the light of the streetlamps. As he left the grounds of number 4 the still unstable wards crumbled. Harry suddenly felt much more vitalized and not so dull anymore. With his returning power the fear in him was enough to cause accidental magic.

With a silent pop the child vanished in the night.

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This was the first introduction to the story hope you liked it... more comes soon :)


	2. Chapter 2 slipping through the net

Thanks for the reviews! Yes I will try to update regularly... just don't know how fast I can manage.

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Text

"Spoken Words"

_Thoughts_

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**2) slipping through the net**

As Petunia Dursley opened the front door of her house at Private Drive, to put out the empty milk bottles as every morning, she started to scream. It was early morning of the 1. November. There in front of her lay an empty basket. Normal people wouldn't scream because of something like that but while Petunia pretended to be completely normal, she had a dark secret. That secret was about her sister and their world. Normally she denied to even having a sister and tried her hardest to pretend there wasn't another world out there but every time something suspicious or unexpected happened she couldn't help herself but blame them. Those freaks. Not even in her own mind she dared to think about them for what they were, she was too scared that any misguided thought would start to pull them into her life and she didn't want anything to do with those...

After her initial shock she grabbed the basket and brought it inside. As silent as possible without waking her baby son or husband she tore it down to pieces and burned the remains in the sink. All the while she hoped that the flames wouldn't just take the disgusting thing away but also every trace of... m.. m.. she couldn't even think the word.

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Petunia Dursley hadn't been the only one with a bad morning. Dumbledore felt every year of his life in his bones as he woke up and went to his magical instruments. Late at night he had already set up the detection system for the new blood wards waiting for them to start working. As the old wizard stood in front of his runes, instruments and books he couldn't believe what he saw. There was... nothing. The wards didn't work. How could that be? Had he made a mistake and didn't set the instruments properly? He didn't like that thought because it would mean that he had an mistake and that wasn't a thought that Dumbledore liked at all. He was the most brilliant and prodigious wizard in this century and even if he tried to carry a modest mask in public to himself he would never say that he had made a mistake. He had been even brilliant enough to remove all promising wizards which could have become a threat to his position from the picture. At first there had been Grindelwald... his friend had become to power hungry and had tried to take over the world not wanting Dumbledore at his side anymore, so he had defeated the wizard and now the other was suffering in Nurmengard for the mistake of throwing Dumbledore aside. With the next threat to his position he had acted much faster and had managed to bring Dippet to his side and deny Tom Riddle to spend more time in Hogwarts library than necessary, the boy had wanted to spend even summer at school. Not that he had been able to stop the young pupil from becoming a threat... even with all his precautions from keeping him away from dangerous knowledge the boy had denied his leadership and had tried to oppose him as "Dark Lord" it was ridiculous as if dark magic would be a threat to him. Fate had given Tom Riddle what he deserved, the wizard had been reduced to a weak wraith barely alive and that with help of his latest threat. Harry Potter had shown extraordinarily powerful accidental magic even at the age of one. Then when the prophecy had been spoken Dumbledore had known immediately that it meant Harry and not Neville. This time Dumbledore swore to himself that he would get Harry to his side and not loose him like Grindelwald or Voldemort, no this boy would adore him and love him because he would save him from his despicable guardians.

At least that was the plan but after checking over his surveillance system again Dumbledore couldn't find any mistake concerning his runes and charms. Something was wrong why didn't the wards work? He had no choice but to return to Private Drive and see for himself what had happened.

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If Petunia Dursley had thought that her morning was bad than she would be surprised just how bad her day was going to be. It started with a confused Vernon that came into the kitchen in the morning smelling that something had been burned. Then Dudley threw a tantrum and started to pollute her perfectly cleaned kitchen with throwing his breakfast around. She only had a few minutes of silence between wishing her husband a good day at work and cleaning the kitchen again when she was suddenly interrupted by the doorbell. As she went to answer it angrily sternly set in sending away anyone no matter what they tried to sale, she got the shock of her life. As she opened her door she needed to blink a few times before she could take in the appearance of the.. the.. the man in front of her completely. On her doorstep in broad daylight stood what only could be a bad joke but instinctively Petunia knew that it wasn't... it had to be one of them. The poor woman went completely white at that thought and tried to control her shaking hands. With only a whisper she was able to speak.

"Yes. What do you want?"

"Ahh, Petunia I'm sure you don't remember me but we have exchanged letters some years ago. My Name is Albus Wulfric Percival Brian Dumbledore and I'm Headmaster of Hogwarts."

Petunia went even paler, inside of her fought two emotions about control. One was fear and the other was rage. She feared the power this man had and what he could do to her or her precious son but she was also enraged that this person dared to appear at her house in broad daylight, wearing those outrageous clothes and speak those foul names in front of her neighbours. Dumbledore of course knew about the inner turmoil of the woman in front of him, he always found it useful to use his extravagant robes to his advantage. Most of his political opponents would underestimate him because of them and because of his masterly trained grandfatherly smile. At the current situation it would allow him entrance to Private Drive as Petunia wouldn't want to risk her neighbours to see him. True to his prediction she overcame her shock and asked him inside. Her voice was laced with fear and hatred but he had reached his goal.

She couldn't believe that she would let him in, close to her Duddydrum but she couldn't let her neighbours find out with what kind of people she had to do. Especially if those people were wearing sky blue robes with yellow suns on top of them. Not that she would underestimate that person, contrary even he wasn't just powerful he was also insane and that made people even more dangerous in her opinion.

Dumbledore easily headed for the sitting room never minding that he hadn't been invited to have a seat. He was a bit miffed that she wouldn't offer him any tea but ignored her twitching eye as he simply sat down. He had more important things to do than to teach that muggle some manners. So he kept his perfected smile on his face and started the conversation as if it was the most normal thing in the world to have an old man in blue robes sitting in ones home. Petunia swallowed her anger down and took place as well.

"Petunia. What happened to Harry?"

His voice was calm on the outside but his magic wandered through the room and the house, searching, testing but with no success. Harry Potter wasn't here. He had feared it as he had arrived at Private Drive to see for the wards and finding them crumbled. What he didn't understand was how it was possible. They shouldn't have been able to give their nephew away... as soon as they would have laid eyes on him the magic would have been binding. He even had laced the letter with more compulsions for Petunia to make sure that she understood the importance of caring for Harry.

"I don't know what you speaking about... who is this Harry?"

Petunia knew that he would know that she knew of her nephew but she didn't see a reason why she would have to bring that cursed child up in this conversation... but then she remembered the basket. It couldn't be... could it?

"We both know that you know perfectly well what I'm asking but I will humour you. What has happened to your nephew that you have found this morning in a basket in front of your door?"

Wizards... seriously. No decent people would leave a child in a basket in the night in front of door and that in November. Wizards. Wait why would he leave that boy at her front step? She didn't want anything to do with those freaks.

"I don't know what has happened to that boy. I only found an empty basket and if there had been a child in it I would have given him to the child service. I don't want any of you in my house or close to my family."

Dumbledore got angry. What did the woman mean with empty basket. This was leading him nowhere so he used legillimence on her. Petunia felt a splitting headache and had the icy feeling that someone was in her mind. She had known that wizards could do that but Lily had told her that it was illegal and that no one would attack people without magic with such an attack and yet the headmaster of their school, the one that taught future generations of magical people just mind raped her.

He couldn't find any useful information. The woman had spoken the truth, as she had found the basket it had already been empty. Putting all the knowledge together that he had gathered about that matter he came to the conclusion that someone had removed Harry before the wards had been stabilized which had let to the current predicament. But who? He had the hope that it wasn't anyone from the death eaters because they would have killed the Dursleys as well but who would have had reason to look for the boy at Surrey and find him before morning... No one had known about his plan to place the boy there, except for McGonagall and Hagrid both were completely loyal to him and he knew for sure that Hagrid hadn't met anyone in the night to give away sensitive information without thinking. Minerva was too smart to give away such important information to anyone and she could care for herself... Sirius had hunted Pettigrew as he had planned and would be soon captured and thrown into Askaban. Hopefully Pettigrew would die during that encounter so no one could proof that Sirius wasn't the secret keeper. It was sad that he had to sacrifice Sirius as well he had been such an promising fighter but after his best mates death he wasn't in any mental state to be useful anyway. Remus couldn't have been it either, the werewolf may have found a trace of Harry's scent but he was out of country at least for another two weeks.

Dumbledore sighed he ran out of possibilities and sitting around in that muggle house wouldn't do anything good either. He got up and modified Petunia's memories, the woman forgot the entire encounter, even the basket incidence he would deal with her later after he had found the boy. If she wouldn't take him in freely than he had ways to force her.

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The third person having a very bad day was Severus Snape. Not that it made any difference anymore. He would be soon arrested as Death Eater and sentenced to Askaban were he would see Lily's dead body for the rest of his life. Not that he deserved anything better. He had failed to protect her. He had sent Voldemort after her... The broken man sat at the shabby couch in Spinners End and gulped down more fire whiskey. He hadn't just lost everything he had fought for but also his usefulness. With the war ended there was no more need for spies and so he waited for the aurors to come and capture him.

_Lily how could I have failed to protect you... my heart you are gone forever._

Then someone knocked at the door.

_Ah there they are, now at least it will be over._

"Severus open the door. It's important!"

_Dumbledore? What did the old manipulator want with him? He had promised to keep Lily safe if Severus would work for him but she was dead. No he wouldn't open the door for him._

To Severus misfortune had Dumbledore no patience left and simply took the wards down and entered. On the outside he kept his grandfatherly facade but on the inside he loathed the man in front of him. If Severus wasn't so useful to him he would have handed him over to justice long ago but with Voldemort's return looming over their heads he couldn't risk to loose his spy. That didn't change the fact that he found the man's behaviour disgusting... drinking himself to oblivion because he had lost a woman that would have never been his anyway.

"Ahh Severus my boy, sadly I have to interrupt your deep thinking because a emergency has occurred."

"And why should I care? There is nothing in this world I care for anymore..."

"Severus you have promised to protect Lily's son... Harry got kidnapped."

"What?"

Even though Severus was drunk... very drunk as the emptied bottle of fire whiskey proofed, his thoughts got vigilant and revived within a second. What did that mean that the boy got lost. How would Dumbledore manage to lose a small baby?

"How? When? I thought you brought him to his relatives?"

Severus had to bite back a vile comment on Petunia but he couldn't allow himself a distraction now.

"Sadly I'm not sure myself. I only could determine that while we left Harry at his relatives house he got lost before he was brought in."

"You left him outside? Really?"

"He was put under warming and sleeping spells I didn't thought that anyone knew where to look for the boy, so I didn't see a danger with letting him at the doorstep."

Severus felt how a headache formed in his mind. He would need to take a potion soon. How could this old fool leave the most important baby of the wizarding world at a doorstep. He would never understand that man.

"Where there any breaches in the wards? Any traces left by wizards that could give us a lead on where to start looking?"

"No sadly I looked all over the house and the garden there was no trace and the register in the ministry didn't help as well not that I have counted on it, with all the celebrations going on, they would need months to work through all the illegal spells done that night. Not that anyone had been there at the ministry to record them in the first place."

Severus sighed but knew that there was no chance with getting something useful out of the ministry, not in it's current state. If he started to ask specific questions the wrong people could hear about Harry being lost and that would be too dangerous.

"Haven't you placed any tracking wards on the child?"

Dumbledore sighed.

"They wouldn't have worked with the wards that I have raised, as those would have protected the child from any kind of binding magic."

"So the wards work now? Then he is still close by."

"No sadly they have failed to settle and stabilize."

Severus couldn't believe the mess he found himself in but also knew why Dumbledore had chosen him to help. The only other person they could trust to know how to behave in the muggle world was Minerva and Dumbledore wouldn't risk telling her that he had lost Lily's son. Not that the former Death Eater wouldn't have paid a high prize to see that collision. He would have bet on Minerva for a clear victory, she would mob the floor with Dumbledore's head. The old man would deserve no less. Not that Severus cared for the boy but he understood the political value of the child and what would happen to the newly born peace in their world if word got out that they had lost their saviour.

While Dumbledore returned to Hogwarts to prepare for another meeting of the ICW, Severus looked for his Muggle clothes and apparated to Surrey. The tall slim man with the slightly oily hair and the hooked nose wasn't particularly happy that he had to look for a child but on the other hand was glad that he still had use for Dumbledore and wouldn't face Askaban anytime soon. He tried his hardest to not think about the potions he could brew in the meantime while he was forced to walk through the muggle neighbourhood and ask questions about a lost boy. He really tried but after the twentieth answer of:

"No good Sir we haven't seen anything last night."

His temper dragged him dangoursly into the direction of strangling those fools to death.

_No, I'm no longer a Death Eater. It wouldn't be wise to kill those Muggles._

Thanks to his Occlumentic shields he could keep his desire in a mental cage.

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Thanks for reading :) hope you still like the story.


	3. Chapter 3 Harry James Potter

Thanks sooo much for the reviews :)) I'm so happy that you like it so far. Concerning the story: I'm finding it along the road, probably like to keep things as open as possible in case I want to take another turn later on. I'm not yet at the state of being able to tell you exactly where I'm going... on the other hand that allows me to take in some of your preferences so maybe it's not that bad. I really read all of the feedback and will try to answer the reviews per private message. Sorry for not yet doing so but I got stuck to bed with fever last days and there was too much headache to do even writing work (it gets soo boring after some hours of staring at the ceiling... couldn't even watch TV-too bright, loud).

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**3****) Harry James Potter**

Weeks passed by but the little boy had vanished without a trace. Not even the combined efforts of Dumbledore, Hogwarts house elves and ex Death Eater spy Snape could find Britain's hero. The only explanation that Severus could find was that Harry had to be either dead or under heavy wards, not that any of those options were helpful. Dumbledore loathed that he had lost the child and was unable to find it again and to get rid of some tension he punished Severus for his lack of success with the one task that he knew the other would hate the most. His little pet would take over Slughorn's post as potions master after his former teacher retired at the end of the year. He hid the cruel smile behind his grandfatherly mask, knowing full well that he could use Snapes guilt to ask nearly everything of him.

_Thanks Lily for leaving me such a willing sheep behind._

Still he couldn't explain how even the house elves had been unable to find the little boy. He had talked to Rirry after the first week but the little being reported that while they had found a trace of apparition outside of Number 4 it got lost after leading to the country side. The small elves had secretly screened the whole area but had been unable to find any clues of the whereabouts of the child. Running out of options the headmaster had to try for damage control and kept it secret that Voldemort's destroyer was missing. The ministry was still busy with cleaning its own house so they accepted his soothing claims of having everything under control. Until the trials of the last Death Eaters were over, he would be able to operate freely and he intended to have the boy back until the authorities had enough time to turn to other tasks.

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Those tasked with finding Harry weren't the only ones going through difficult and challenging times. Harry himself was terrible confused, he didn't know where his parents or uncles were, despite all people around him being completely nice they still weren't his family. What happened? The boy had thought about the adventure park he had been in with paddy and his parents. He had gotten a big portion of candy floss, in the beginning it was great but the stuff glued to his face and fingers and Lily had the hardest time to clean him up again. Despite the sugar stuff incidence it had been a great day and his daddy had taken him on a rollercoaster. His mummy hadn't been happy with it but daddy and paddy said that it was close to flying on a broom.

Harry had been completely devastated as he saw the park now. It was completely empty of people and everything was closed. His daddy wasn't there, there was no one. Of course there wasn't no one but the night guard thought he was having a bad dream and tried to blame too much coffee on it. Not a minute before there had suddenly a baby boy appeared on camera 14. It had gone blurry for two seconds and then wupp out of nowhere a child stood in front of the biggest rollercoaster in the park. That had to be a trick from some youths trying to confuse him of course. Little children don't appear out of nowhere... but...

The night didn't went too well for Mr. Anthony not only had he discovered that the child was real, he also had to call authorities and they didn't believe him that the boy appeared out of nowhere. They checked all of the security cameras only come to the same conclusion as the guard: it should be impossible. After the police left he could only pray that he would be spared anymore weird stuff for the rest of the night.

Harry in meantime slept through most of the ordeal. Getting exhausted from everything he had been through and also from accidentally apparating only to discover that his family wasn't anywhere to be found, he didn't really process everything that happened. The police handed the child to child service and were tasked to find the boy's family. They suspected a serious case of neglect because how else would a child end up alone in an adventure park past midnight in November without any warm cloths and only a blanket? Maybe the parents wanted to get rid of the little fellow? As the young social worker took the child he couldn't understand why anyone would be cruel to such a nice calm little boy. While the child slept they let some doctors check over the serious looking cut and went through the things that the child had with him. There was the letter discovered.

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_Dear Petunia,_

_I'm quite sorry that our contact has to happen due such serious circumstances. As you surely know, your sister had been in hiding due to being targeted by the dark lord of our world. Sadly I have to inform you that her husband and she were killed at Hallow's eve as they were hit by an evil curse and only young Harry survived miraculously. As you are the only family that the boy has left now, I'm sure you will take the child in and raise him like your own son. His mother also left the boy with a protection that will keep you all save during the next years until it is time for Harry to return to his own world. With reading this letter you agree to give the child a home until he turns 17 and it is important for the protection that he can always return to your house. _

_Again I'm saddened that I can only give you my condolence. I remain with understanding and compassion for your loss,_

_yours sincerely_

_Albus Wulfric Percival Brian Dumbledore_

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They had already read many confusing and crazy things in their life but this was breaking a new record. They weren't quite sure at how serious they could take any information from the letter that was written on real parchment and had been sealed with wax. They had of course taken pictures from the seal before breaking it but they couldn't really find any references to the big H with the snake, lion and two more animals that looked like an eagle and a badger. Then they had taken several pictures from the letter itself before sending it to the forensic lab. It would take a while to analyse not only the quality of parchment, wax and ink but also the handwriting itself. So far they only had suspicions but there were huge clues in the letter that pointed into direction of some probably dangerous cult.

The officers which took over the case of "Harry" were concerned about the mentioning of a "dark lord", "their world" in the sense of they were secluded from the normal world was also fighting because it pointed into the direction of a large amount of people that could live more or less autarkic. So they had to count on great numbers. Concerning was also the mentioning of "dark", "curse" and "protection" which pointed towards a magical probably satanistic cult and such people were dangerous because they couldn't be faced with common sense. They also tended to be fanatic and the hierarchic order that was mentioned with the "dark lord" didn't do anything to calm their nerves. All in all it got quite clear after a few hours that the boy was probably most lucky to be away from those crazy people.

Some more worrying facts about the letter was the mentioning of the names. Of course they would search long for a woman called Petunia even if they knew that she had a sister which she probably wasn't in contact with for years. At least the tone of the letter suggested as much. Petunia wasn't an unusual name and it was most likely that she had never been involved with the law before so they didn't really have a good clue. Different was with the Dumbledore man, of course the computer hadn't yet found anything and after some hours they suspected that it was a pseudonym but who was so vain to invent five names and what did that tell them about the character of the writer. It also spoke of a huge amount of confidence in himself to leave the letter signed with his full name, that let to a few conclusions. First who ever wrote it was sure that only Petunia would get and read the letter. Second even if he signed with his full name no one would be able to find him through it. Third he probably didn't care that he committed a serious case of child neglect with leaving the boy wherever it had been that he left him.

At the police station they already had gathered some information about the case. Some of the officers had not only checked all the cameras from the park for some possibly revealing takes on other people or any form of activity, they had also searched the surrounding area for any kind of Petunia or clues about where the boy had come from. It had been in vain though. There weren't really any people living close by the adventure park as it was build in a business area. Only cafés, restaurants and large car selling enterprises had been located there. Oddly enough there were also no cars filmed at the parking spaces or anyone which had entered the place during the night. They didn't believe that the child could have survived there many hours even if it hadn't been filmed by the cameras before (due to some miracle) so they were rightly confused how the boy had suddenly appeared. It also was odd that he had been filmed by three cameras and all of them had malfunctioned for two seconds as the boy appeared... they didn't want to believe in coincidence but had no explanation. Their experts would check the cameras and the system for any kind of manipulation but they weren't positive to find something as it would have been highly convenient to use a place like an adventure park to get rid of a child especially knowing that there were most likely cameras to be found. Why not simply dropping the boy in a back street? All of them shook their heads there were so many details which didn't fit together.

The DNA test would possibly clear up who the parents of the boy were but the laboratory already worked overtime as they had three major cases at the moment and there was months old work to work through with all the terrorist acts around the country. No one knew how many of the gas explosions had been caused by terrorists but they knew that the increase on accidents over the last years weren't normal.

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Harry woke up in an orphanage. It was of course standard procedure to hand a found child into the care of the government until the confusing circumstances had been cleared but the small boy didn't know that. He only knew that he still had no idea where his parents were or what exactly had happened at the empty adventure park. The guardian of the smaller children in the orphanage was a young woman with brown long hair which was caught up in a bun. She had a friendly smile but was still somewhat insecure as she hadn't yet much practice with children. She only had started working there this summer after finishing her education. Mrs. Hallows or Jane how the children were to call her, had a lovely heartfelt smile and she was very kind to Harry. That was the reason why Harry didn't understand his fear and hatred. As he had first opened his eyes he had known that he was in an orphanage and he had also known what that meant. He hadn't known why he would posses such a knowledge but as he had to fight against the urge of smashing something he hadn't had the time to think closer about it. Only as he had wanted to start playing with the other children, the inner feeling of fear and hatred had reached a complete new level.

_"Ignorant Muggles. Why do I have to end up in such a place again. I have never believed in hell but it seems that something like god may really exist and it has a wicked sense of humor."_

Harry wasn't sure what he had heard but he knew that it was inside of him as all of the others around him didn't seem to hear anything. The voice sounded familiar even if he wasn't able to place it. He decided to think back and hoped that the voice would be able to hear him as well.

"Hello?"

There was a long pause. The silence was only interrupted by a feeling of wariness and surprise maybe also curiosity.

_"You can hear me."_

It wasn't a question but Harry was happy that he hadn't only dreamed that he had heard that voice. He decided to ask some questions.

_"Who are you?"_

_"You don't remember the night?"_

Then Harry suddenly knew why the voice seemed familiar... the green light... the laughter.

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Tom Riddle better known and feared as Lord Voldemort couldn't believe in what kind of predicament he had found himself in. He had entered the small family house in Gothric's Hollow and easily killed James Potter. After being amused with not facing any resistance worth mentioning he went up to where the nursery was and where Lily Potter tried to shield her son from him. As he entered the room he was disgusted by himself not that he would ever say so aloud but standing in front of a begging mother trying to defend her baby wasn't a scene that he had envisioned for himself as youth. Yes he had wanted power and glory, had wanted to be known and respected even feared but for his strength and power not for insane cruelness. Greatness was nothing that could be achieved by killing an infant. Of course he had no regret with killing Lily Potter but he took a second to ask himself how he could have ended up in such a scene the first place.

Lack of morality was still miles away from insane cruelness. Yes he had never cared about the useless definition of dark vs. light and good vs. evil but while he always had used all means to reach his goals he had also prided himself for his superior intellect and rationality. How rational was it to head after a baby because of the mumblings of a fraud and without even knowing the entire prophecy? Not that it was to change and as he pointed his wand at the small boy who stared back at him he may have been disappointed with the outcome of the situation but found enough hatred to simply fire the killing curse. Maybe the hatred was fuelled by jealousy because the boy had a mother ready to protect her child with her life. Parents that cared enough for him to give up everything so their boy would be safe. His own mother hadn't even wanted to life on for him to raise him... she had simply given up.

It was only a second of not paying attention that caused his downfall. He hadn't calculated on anything unusual and wasn't prepared that his curse would deflect and hit him into his chest. The pain was crucial he screamed in agony as his body burned to ashes and he felt ripped apart. Weakness swept over him, as well as more pain. Then there was only darkness as he fell to unconsciousness.

His current state was nothing he could really describe, incredible weak and unable to even open his eyes. Voldemort was oddly aware that something was going on and that there were times when more sensations would reach him than others but it was like he was caught in a mist. Unable to penetrate the blurriness he decided to rest more and try to gather some strength. It took the soul shard unknown time and several attempts until he was at least able to figure out where he was and what was going on. If he had known what he would find beneath the mist he would have gladly declined trying to break through it in the first place.

As he opened the eyes, he suddenly was aware that it weren't his own eyes and that he wasn't alone inside the body he currently resided in it. Without disturbing the other consciousness that was also in the body and only was separated from him through a wall of mist, he checked on his new body and was shocked to discover that he was inside a child. His shock only deepened as he had to meet "Jane" and hear her calling him Harry. His brain worked fast and as he wasn't called brilliant for nothing he concluded that a part of his soul had been transferred to the boy as the killing curse rebounded. Not that that wasn't bad enough on its own he also had to land inside of an orphanage. Old pain and hatred burned inside him and he knew that some of his feelings penetrated the mist that shielded the boy from him.

_"Ignorant Muggles. Why do I have to end up in such a place again. ..."_

His thoughts were accompanied by how he would always recognize such an awful place no matter how many years passed. He really thought the god hated him, some part of him knew that he didn't deserved anything better but...

His thoughts were interrupted as he discovered that Harry could hear him. He could also feel the fear coming from the boy as he discovered who he was. Probably realising only now, that it hadn't been a bad dream and that his mummy wouldn't come back to him. Not that he could care at the moment as he fought against his own disgust as he looked into Jane's face. Even after decades away from that vile place he could still hear the maniac laughs from the patron as she locked him into the dark basement as punishment for accidental magic. All thought that he had learned wandless magic because he had been a prodigy no one realized that he was either learning to control it and use it to defend himself or die at the hands of those disgusting muggles. His first four years at the orphanage had been the worst. In the beginning they only found him odd because he had been silent, not crying or laughing but after his first bouts of accidental magic they had started to fear him and call him the devils child. They had called for an exorcist and had punished him with locking him into complete darkness for days. He had become starved and pale traits that the other children saw as weakness and ganged up on him. If he hadn't learned control over his powers he would have died, his luck was that he had been smart enough to figure out how to attack others and not get caught while doing so. After a while they really had good reasons to fear him and stay clear of him but that didn't mean that he had hated the place any less.

That he had to return to such a place ever again. There weren't many things that could make Voldemort shiver but the idea of his punishment being to live through something like that again, again being caught in a weak defenceless body of a child all of that made even him feeling fear again.

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Part 3 :) hope you had fun. Ideas, additions, critique (constructive) is always welcome... Why house elves and Co are unable to find Harry will be covered in the next part. Sorry for making you wait. See you soon.


	4. Chapter 4 melting

welcome back to part 4... thanks again for the reviews and for everyone who joined in with favorites and follows (I'm very happy) but beware the madness!

To guest: Thanks for the review. If you want me to use another word/phrase to say the same thing please give me an example... as English isn't my main language I can't really distinguish between old/new sounding words but I'm grateful to learn something new, just help me out and tell me how you would phrase things. Again everything concerning writing/grammar would be best given to a beta reader (is that an offer?). On the other hand I could argue that someone wearing blue robes with golden suns on it couldn't redeem himself through talking and you probably could also argue that Dumbledore does such things on purpose like telling the first years (book): "...after all of us are watered and fed."

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**4) Melting**

Harry couldn't help but be scared, not that anyone would blame him. Who wouldn't be scared if the murderer of their parents would be stuck in their head. Not that he was able to understand this thoroughly he only knew that the voice was the same voice that had laughed as his mother had screamed and now he was alone without his family. The little boy was terrible scared it didn't help that the feelings of the other presence in his mind was fear too, even if Voldemort was scared for different reasons. It took a while for the soul shard to really process the range of affect that those changes in his life would mean for him. He was stuck inside a child that was only a bit older than one year. Harry of course could already walk and talk (a bit) but Voldemort had no control over the child. He tried a few times to take over Harry's body movement or tried to use magic but it wouldn't work. He could only be dragged along and watch life unfolding in front of him. His only way of doing anything was influencing Harry but that alone proved difficult for several reasons. One of the more difficult ones was that the boy feared/hated/mistrusted him and rightfully so. On the other side was the boy not really grown enough to really understand any of his wishes.

Oh the irony of that situation, the mighty dark lord brought down to a shivering, fearful one year old child. He had sworn to himself to never be so vulnerable, to rather be feared than ever experience fear himself again. Now all his plans and mighty walls lay crumbled at the floor of the nursery in Godric's hollow. What was left of him? A tiny shard of a former great wizard... nothing more than a magical fingerprint of the greatest force magical Britain had to encounter in the last century. To be able to put his current state in the back of his mind, Voldemort searched his memories for whom he could blame for all of this... Snape and his cursed prophecy, on the other hand he was quite sure that it was rather Dumbledore's scheme than Snape's doing. His potion's master had quite the bright mind but wasn't near any of the brilliance of himself or Dumbledore. Dumbledore... could the old coot have planned his downfall, he hated that man. It was annoying that he probably had played directly in the old monster's hands as he had killed the boy's family. Dumbledore cared as much for those loyal to him as he cared for his Death eater's. Not that he minded killing the Potter's but it left a sour taste in his imaginary mouth that he had blindly followed the old man's plans again.

_"Haven't I sworn to myself to never get caught inside of Dumbledore's web? Didn't all my dark rituals and diving into the most evil magic only serve the purpose to get away from the path Dumbledore had planned for him? Hadn't the old fool wanted him to be his next puppet? At best a nice silent chess piece that would be moved through the Wizengamoth and allow Dumbledore to rule things from the backseat?"_

He could still remember the words the old man had spoken as they discussed his career options.

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**_Flashback_**

"My dear boy, I don't think that it would be wise for you to stay at Hogwarts as teacher. You need to go out into the world and make your own experience."

Tom could clearly see the twinkle in the teacher's eye. He would have loved to blast the beard from his face but knew that such a thing would ruin his last chance to sway Dippet.

"Professor Dumbledore I'm quite thankful for your advice but I think this would be the decision of the headmaster."

His voice remained as calm and polite as always but inside of him a cold fury started to unleash... how dared this old fool to try and ruin his job interview. With his last hope he turned back to the headmaster and waited for the decision. It was clearly to see how the headmaster had gotten unsure about appointing Tom Riddle as the new Defence teacher. Always his misfortune that Dumbledore had to "coincidently" appear ten minutes after he had brought his request forward. As Dippet formulated an answer, Tom had to shut his eyes for a moment to not let his anger show.

"Mr. Riddle it is truly unheard of students to immediately start teaching after their own graduation and Professor Dumbledore had spoken some hours with me only yesterday to reassure me that even the highest positions in the Ministry would be open to you. So maybe you should think about gathering some real life experience and come back for this post in some years."

"With all due respect Headmaster, my references are outstanding and I love teaching. I don't want to apply for a post in the ministry."

He heard a soft chuckle from Dippet and knew that the man actually really liked him and his passion for the subject of Defence. He still had hope to maybe convince him. That hope faded as Dumbledore spoke the next words.

"Ahh my boy, it will be better for you if you get the chance to see the world and encounter some real adventures before coming back. Hogwarts will always be open to you and with your skill its undoubtedly that you will fill out your post very well, the world will need young brilliant minds like yours. We couldn't take that away from you that would be selfish and you would regret it maybe not today but in a few years. It's better to live and enjoy all life has to offer while you are young. I'm sure that the headmaster would also be more content with seeing you happy and reaching your full potential so politics would be a great chance for you. You would even have the opportunity to represent Hogwarts in the ministry if its your wish to still work for the school."

It sounded like Dumbledore offered a great cookie to a beloved but little dumb child and Tom had to pull in all of his magic and seal his aura to not blow up the entire office. He could see it in Dippet's eyes how he believed Dumbledore's words and how he started to think that Tom maybe really should go into politics completely disregarding Tom's former announcement that the he didn't want to work for the ministry.

**End Flashback**

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That day Voldemort had been born. Of course he had used the pseudonym before because it was useful to enforce fear and respect inside his own dorm and even the school. Tom as muggle name would have never worked for him, his fellow snakes would have continued to bully him for his heritage no matter if he was descendent of Slytherin or not. What changed that day was that he decided to use his new identity to return the magical world to his former glory, to remove the corruption that had even settled in Hogwarts itself. He never wanted to work in the ministry but he had decided that he wouldn't sit back and let an old fool rule all the future of magical Britain simply by manipulating it's future generations. Dumbledore wanted the wizarding world ignorant and blind towards it's own history and towards the Muggles. Oh he had known what would happen if Dumbledore would become the new headmaster... sadly his predictions had been too accurate.

Even today Voldemort couldn't believe how the curriculum of Hogwarts had become more outdated and inaccurate with every passing year. Alone with Binns as history teacher people were bound turn away from history... it was funny he hadn't thought about those things for years now. When had he stopped caring about his original plans? He had been so caught up in preparing for war and revolution and yet he hadn't thought about his goals anymore. The only thing important had been to remove the ministry and Dumbledore. The old manipulator, with all his preparations and fail safes he still had simply been caught into the old man's trap.

How could he change fate now that he was trapped into Harry's body?

_Hopefully Dumbledore doesn't know what has happened or else I would be dead as soon as they checked on the boy. Why did they give him to an orphanage?_

Those thoughts weighted heavily on Voldemort's mind. He couldn't explain why the "saviour" of all Britain would be send to Muggles of all things. It was like they wanted the child out of the way but for what reason? The more Voldemort thought about the entire situation he got a really bad feeling for Harry/himself he couldn't get rid of the feeling that there were even more webs of lies and manipulation in place for the boy.

_But why the muggles?_

It didn't help, he wouldn't find any answers at this place and there were more urgent problems to solve. Like killing those Muggles and disappear before anyone is any wiser.

###

Meanwhile at the police station the officers had gotten some nice results from all the tests they had ordered. The DNA test result was probably the most useful as they had found the name: Lily Jane Evans. Even with only having a birth certificate and some basic school certificates from primary school it was still enough to find out that while Lily had vanished at the age of elven, she still had a sister called Petunia. All in the department smiled as they found Petunia Dursley nee Evans living in Private Drive Number 4, Surrey. As expected there were no clues about any abnormal activities in any records concerning the Dursleys. For everyone they were the perfect small middle class family. A husband with a well paying job at a larger company, a housewife and their one year old son.

It wouldn't help as the officers had no choice but to interrupt the perfect life of the Dursley as they had questions about many things and some of them came directly from analysing the handwriting of the letter. The results spoke of a man of older age that used his right hand and a quill of all things (wasn't the only baffling thing related to the letter). The constant pressure which led to a very accurate and neat looking impression told them of an amazing calligraphy skill, as if the person wrote his entire life only with quills. It also implied that said person had a lot of time to improve those skills so it could be something related to the job (maybe an artist) or a person with enough free time (because the followers would do any actual work) so if the person was employed it was probably a high paying job, were most things would be delegated. Those things correlated with the content of the letter as the author obviously was used that people did his bidding without questioning him.

Of course those results weren't only straight forward and pointing in one direction (they never were), contradicting to the straight forward and demanding tone of the content were the bows and curves used on the g,q and other letters. Those spoke of grandeur and eccentric, they spoke of a causal and patronizing tendency. Like a grandfather figure but the scientists of the lab were quite sure that those were actually used as mask to conceal the more forcing parts and distract the reader.

Beyond the handwriting, the materials used for the letter were also baffling. It was actual parchment and handmade ink which contained substances that weren't used since the 19th as more practical binders had been developed since. The wax also lacked any kind of industrial mark, it was completely won of natural components no paraffin could be found in it. One of their teams was already looking for all kind of companies that would produce such materials but there always was the chance that those people produced those things on their own without selling them in large numbers.

###

"Mrs. Dursley?"

"Yes, who are you?"

"This is my partner officer Rook and I'm officer Detnell, we have some questions could we come inside?"

Both policemen noticed how the eyes of the woman in front of them widened in fear. She seemed suddenly very scared and looked left and right to the neighbour houses.

"Of course please come inside. May I ask what this visit is about?"

"Of course but it would be better to continue inside, this may take a while."

The woman which had her small son on her hip showed them inside. Her lips were still pressed to a thin line and she continued to throw nervous glances around her. Petunia didn't know what to think about the officers. She couldn't think of anything that had happened that would require the presence of the police. She sighed heavily she had that clouded feeling that she had already encountered more trouble in the last days. She felt worn down but couldn't remember why. With another sigh she closed the front door behind her "guests" and led them to the living room, where all of them settled down.

"Mrs. Dursley we are here because we are currently working on a delicate case on child endangerment and we found proof that your sister is involved in it."

Petunia froze in place, the vase with flowers she had removed from the coffee table dropped to the floor and crashed into hundred of splinters. She didn't care.

_They know of Lily? How?_

Both police officers had known that things would be difficult but hadn't counted on such a strong reaction to only the mentioning of her sister.

"Are you allright?"

"Yes, yes of course I'm alright it's just that I haven't spoken of my sister in years. I thought no one knew that I had a sister."

"I see, so your relationship isn't the best?"

The woman snorted (very unladylike).

"Not the best? Hell I pretend I don't have a sister and I don't want anything to do with her or her kind, those are all freaks and crazy people, so if it's about them then you can leave. In this house, this street non of this freakishness is welcome, please leave."

The officers were confused by how drastically Petunia's behaviour had shifted but they guessed she was scared. Maybe those "freaks" threatened her or her family in some way?

"Mrs. Dursley we are sorry that we have to inform you that your sister is dead and that her small son was found abandoned in an adventure park and we are now looking into his case. If you feel threatened by those people who are behind all of this then we will station an officer at the house for your protection."

It seemed that Mrs. Dursley was frozen again.

Lily is dead. She is dead. What did they mean with her son?

"She is dead?"

"Yes we found out that she was one of the listed victims in the gas explosion at Godric's hollow on Halloween. As there was so much trouble currently we got only now notified. Again I regret that you have to learn about it in such a way."

Petunia only nodded and silently sat down at the couch. She needed to sort through her brain. Everything felt foggy and not real... shouldn't she at least have remembered that Lily had a son. She knew that she had possessed that knowledge and the more she thought about it... she thought his name was Harry... maybe.

"You said that this was about the son of my sister?"

"Yes, little Harry was found abandoned and we now need to find out what had happened and who is responsible, we really hope you will help us with this?"

It took them a long time until Petunia had overcome her shock and hatred enough to speak about their childhood and how Lily had been suddenly accepted at the boarding school for special children. The officers listened carefully and Petunia had a hard time to phrase things in a way that wouldn't sound like magic. She didn't want to spend the rest of her life in clinic for mentally instable people. She tried her best to explain everything she could about Hogwarts and Headmaster Dumbledore, of course she couldn't tell them where the school was located and such things but what she could give them on characteristics about Dumbledore seemed to fit to whatever kind of knowledge they already had.

It was a long conversation and it was already time to start dinner before the officers finally left but both parties seemed very satisfied about their accomplishments. The officers had gained enough knowledge to get an idea on how large that secret society was (they had their own school of all things) and how effective they were with remaining hidden (again they concealed an entire school). Petunia on the other hand was also very satisfied as the officers told her that she wouldn't have to look after Harry and that they would make sure that she and her family would be protected from possible visitors from the sect. They made sure that one of their officers would always watch number 4 and that they would remain in civil as to not shy away possible suspects.

As Petunia started to cook she felt better than in years. Finally she had done something about the madness and even if she couldn't speak about magic, the police drew their own conclusions and in her opinion the "sect thing" wasn't far from the truth. She could only hope that now that things started to proceed that she wouldn't have to face anymore of those freaks close to her or her family.

###

Voldemort's mood dropped from worse to hell. There was only one more step left on the range and that was "make Satan look like the nice guy" but contrary to usual circumstances this time his feeling was accompanied with fear. It wasn't just the normal fear but this fear was like "they will grab the freak and starts experiments on him now" kind of fear. It actually really was a life and death situation for him. Caused was everything by Jane, she had noticed how distressed small Harry had behaved and how he hadn't started to play with the other children in the group. Voldemort would never understand how those clues led her to the hellish idea of injecting him with a calming drug... so he would able to sleep. He only knew that if he ever gained control back this woman would die, slowly and in the most painful way and that wouldn't be only from crucios oh no...

As the nurse came with the syringe in her hand he knew that he had only a mere seconds left to do something. If he didn't do something now then they would drug him and use him for experiments. He wouldn't let this happen to him...again. With all the power the spirit had he tore down the mist around him. It was exhausting and he felt how more and more of his conscious started to become instable. Then he collided full force with Harry's mind/soul/being. From there on everything went wrong, instead of gaining control over the child and apperating them away he suddenly felt as if something sucked at him. His spirit weakened with every second until it got lost.

Harry didn't understand what happened but he didn't mind that Jane took him into her arms. Everything was so confusing him even more so as those powerful feelings of hatred and rage cursed through his body. As Jane told him that he would only need a long nap and that she would give him a medicine he couldn't understand why the feelings inside of him seemed to explode. Then he felt something in his head like the voice he had heard before but something very odd happened as he tried to look at it more closely. Harry didn't know what happened but before he felt the needle piercing him and him becoming more and more drowsy something inside him changed.

Jane carried the sleeping boy to his bed, hoping that the stress of the child would fade away now. No one knew that while his body slept, the magic inside the child was very active. As the alien presence had torn down the protective walls of the child the inner magic had started to defend itself and in that process absorbed the other force. Slowly the two minds fused to one and the aura and magical signature of Harry James Potter changed forever. While his blood remained the same, his magic didn't and the world wouldn't be prepared for who he would be, now that he wasn't Harry Potter any longer but also was Tom Riddle.

Fate tried to not show of her huge grin but she couldn't help it as she looked at Doom's shocked face. Doom couldn't believe it but her sister had stolen her latest victim from her. She had taken Tom Riddle and changed his fate forever. Of course she would get her revenge... maybe she should doom Harry Potter if she couldn't get Tom Riddle anymore.

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:) hope you had fun with the chapter and are prepared for what is coming next (evil laughter).


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